Rhetorical Devices

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Transcript of Rhetorical Devices

Antithesis is a figurative speech to literal meaning in order to create an ironic or comic effect. AntithesisWhen using Imagery, you use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in a way that It appeals to our concrete (physical) sensesImageryThis video breaks down most, if not all Rhetorical Devices in the story of the Letter From a Birmingham Jail.AnaphoraRhetorical DevicesVol XCIII, No. 311$1.25Rhetorical Device Breakdown in MLK's letter from Birmingham's jailMonday Jan.21,2015Examples of Imagery in MLK's letter: paragraph 14"and see ominous clouds of inferiority...unconscious bitterness towards white people."In this example King uses imagery and metaphor to describe the offensive strain felt when you see segregation and inequality reversed onto the innocent ones you love. By using these devices you are able to understand the pain King felt when having to explain racism, watch understanding, and acceptance, of injustice form.

end of paragraph 24-- "Like a boil......be cured" In this example King uses imagery to compare injustice and racism to a disgusting boil. He compares the two by saying that they won't get better if they are ignored. They need to be acknowledged and treated equally.

Diction LevelsMetaphorKing uses metaphor to clarify his points through comparisonsexample: King uses metaphors like: "Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."A metaphor is a word or a phrase used to refer to another thing in order to show or make you think they are similarKing uses Antithesis when he says "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

He's trying to say no one actually has safe justice as long as injustice is going on anywhere in the world.King's example of antithesis is interesting because it uses and compares actual people with things legal and illegal.King uses an example of Anaphora when he says: “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” – then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

Anaphora is the repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effectKing makes us think about the trials of being a negro and how people try and think they understand how he truly feels, when in the real world they don't. He repeats the words when and then to describe the difficulty of waiting and how Negros feel about it.It helps the reader visualize more realisticallyAn Antithesis is two opposite ideas put together to achieve effectExample: "One small step for man,One giant leap for mankind."